Various means have been used in prior art small arm silencers to attenuate muzzle blast noise, reduce barrel compensation and muzzle flash. The problem with prior art devices which use baffles or choke tubes to deflect and break up the shock wave has been that the level of noise attenuation was generally of a low order. In addition the use of baffles or choke tubes generally did nothing to provide for muzzle compensation. Those prior art devices which use taper slots or grooves in a housing to ventilate the propellant gases as they leave the muzzle and to break up the symmetrical configuration of the shock wave, are generally inefficient in noise reduction, do not completely prevent the gun flash from being seen, and do not provide adequate barrel compensation.